2008 Group Disability Insurers

Listed in alphabetical order
Published January 14, 2008

February 19, 2008

GROUP DISABILITY INSURERS

In a reversal from the previous year, sales in the group disability market were up at midyear 2007, according to a survey of the group disability market by JHA, a disability reinsurance, risk management and research firm in Portland, Maine.

The sales appeared to be driven by a few large carriers writing policies for larger employer groups, according to JHA’s midyear survey. The top 10 carriers held a market share of 83 percent of new long-term disability sales premiums and about 77 percent of new short-term disability sales premiums at midyear 2007, an increase from a year ago.

According to the JHA survey, the sales premiums for long-term and short-term disability insurance totaled $1.3 billion, up 15 percent at midyear 2007 compared with a year earlier. New sales premiums for long-term disability coverage were up 15 percent to $915 million, and new short-term disability sales also increased by 15 percent, to about $402 million.

Total combined group disability earned premiums at midyear reached just over $6.3 billion, an increase of 7 percent. The total number of insured employees grew by about 5 percent for both long-term and short-term disability, while the number of insured employer groups grew by 3 percent.

"With the majority of carriers reporting an increase in their quote activity at the time of this survey, new LTD industry sales could exceed $1.5 billion for the full year 2007," according to JHA. "This may indicate that some carriers are having more success reaching new buyers."

To enlarge the view, click on the image below.Adobe Acrobat Reader is required